1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing technology for deforming at least a portion of an area on a target image.
2. Related Art
An image processing technology for deforming a digital image has been known, which is, for example, described in JP-A-2004-318204. JP-A-2004-318204 describes an image processing that deforms the shape of a face in such a manner that a portion of an area on the image of a face (an area that shows the image of a cheek) is set as a correction area, the correction area is divided into a plurality of small areas in accordance with a predetermined pattern, and the image is enlarged or reduced by a scaling factor set for each small area.
The impression obtained by observing an image of a face that is generated through imaging using an image pickup apparatus (for example, a digital still camera) possibly differs from the impression obtained by observing the actual face. In such a case, it is conceivable to perform image processing by which the shape of the image of the face is deformed to approximate the impression of the image of the face to the impression of the actual face. However, the impression of the image of a face may vary depending on various factors, and there is a possibility that a desired image cannot be obtained even when the image is deformed in the same manner.
This problem not only applies to the case in which the image of a face, which serves as a subject, is deformed, but it also commonly applies to image processing that deforms the image of other specific subjects.